Welcome Home Party!

 Just a few scenes from the Welcome Home Party for our friends and their daughter Isabella.

 

It was such a lovely day. I feel so honored to have been there. Welcome Home Isabella. We're so glad you're here!

To read more of Isabella's story, click here.
To see more photos from the party, click here to see them on our Church Facebook page.

Rhubarb Crunch

I went "old school" and turned to my stash of cookbooks to find a rhubarb recipe. I found this gem of a cookbook, and this gem of a recipe. I had never made it before, but I will certainly make it again!

 Enjoy!

Happy St. Urho's Day!

I grew up in a Finnish family in a community of many Finnish people. So, every year when March 16th came around, we would wear purple and green clothes to school and sometimes we would wear pins that said "100% Finn", "Sisu", "Finn Power" or the blue and white Finnish flag. The school cafeteria would even serve Finnish flat bread and mojakka (moy-yuh-kah) for lunch. I also have a memory of the math teacher, Mr. Miller dressed in purple and green, entertaining us with a St. Urho's Day jig... It was a fun day in Sebeka, MN - even if we weren't the home of the original statue of St. Urho. 9 miles north, the city of Menahga had the honor. I grew up exactly 10 miles from each town. I feel like I grew up right in the heart of St. Urho-land.

Here are a couple of pictures (that I found on SaintUrho.com) of the statue in Menahga, MN.




The legend says that St. Urho chased all of the grasshoppers out of Finland and saved the grape crop. Thus the purple and green color theme. And uh... thus, the giant pitch fork with a grasshopper on it.

As a child, we were so proud to be Finnish and even prouder to be 100% Finn. It was a serious "Finn-pride" day in my neck of the woods. I guess it's much like the "Irish-pride" day. And, I have to admit, that we pretty much ignored the Irish holiday, uh... what's it called anyways? :)

I haven't paid much attention to the holiday now that I live in the Pacific Northwest, but as my kids get older I find that I want them to know about the experiences and culture that was a part of my life growing up in Minnesota. I heard a rumor about a St. Urho's Day parade in nearby Hood River, OR... I was intrigued, I even considered pulling the kids out of school (except they've already had a gazillion sick days) but, I found out that the tradition was discontinued two years ago. I guess it's not a rumor, it's true, they actually did have a parade, complete with the changing of the guard, purple and green clothes, etc... and my husband saw it one year because the parade route went right by his office. I sort of laughed about it, but now wish I could've seen it and even more, shared the experience with my kids. Oh well, we'll be sure to make a trip to the famous St. Urho statue on our next visit to Minnesota and of course, we'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

So, I put in a call to my mom... "uh mom, how do you make makkara mojakka anyways?"
Now, if only I knew how to make flat bread!

Happy St. Urho's Day!


For more St. Urho info, here are a few links that I stumbled upon.
http://www.sainturho.com/

http://everydaysaholiday.org/st-urhos-day/

http://farsideoffifty.blogspot.com/2010/03/st-urhos-day-2010.html

~Greta.

Cake Pop Display

 Cake pops, cookies and more...

Elena was so pleased with the design that she came up with for the pretzel sticks and cookies.
P.S. The purple and pink pretzels are sprinkled with purple and pink nerds.

Click here to see more photos from the party.

Cake Pop necessity...

I forgot to mention this in my previous post about cake pops.

My super crafty friend, Liz introduced me to this amazing product that saved the day when we were making cake pops. It's called "Paramount Crystals" and it was essential when the almond bark or cake melts were getting kinda lumpy. I just sprinkled a few flakes in, stirred it up, let them set a few minutes and the cake melts were smooth and creamy. They truly saved the day. And the almond bark and cake melts.

I saw another suggestion for the same problem - add a few drops of vegetable oil to the almond bark/cake melts. And of course, don't add water or milk, it will cause them to seize up.  

Here's a link to the product at Amazon.com. I think you can get them much cheaper at a specialty cake and candy supply store, but this will give you an idea of what they look like.

Just thought I'd share the tip that saved the day... and the cake pops!

Party prep...

Here are a few pictures from the day before the party...

My friend Liz (she's way in the back corner) and I (and our daughters) met at the church the afternoon before the party and put up the decorations.

We set up a little dessert table. 

And we hung up all of the pom poms.

The Church Fellowship Hall will look bright and cheery for awhile, we plan to leave the pom poms  up for our Community Easter Celebration. 

Here's proof that I was there. Pay no attention to the fact that I'm in pajamas...  :)

Pom poms

I've been seeing these pom poms all over the entertaining blogs I follow. I think they look so cool and add so much drama and happiness. I was super anxious to figure out how to make them, so of course, I turned to Martha. I found it interesting to know that this is Martha Stewart's most searched for craft on her website. Click here to see her instructions.

Truth is, I probably made them or something very similar, as a child in elementary school, that's how easy they are.

If you want to make them, pick up a pack of tissue paper (8-9) sheets, fold the whole stack accordion style. Twist some floral wire around the middle to make a handle. Trim off the edges of the tissue paper. Separate the tissue paper and fluff it up. Hang with fishing line. And that's it, you end up with a beautiful pom pom!

I love these! And I love that I have another "entertaining skill", (if I can call it a skill) up my sleeve. Oh just wait til you see the photos from the party, it was so fun to have a bright punch of color in that old church fellowship hall. I'm waiting with you, I haven't even glanced at the photos yet, I know they'll be cool, there's a gazillion of them... there's bound to be a few that turned out.

Oh, I could plan parties all day long, day after day... except someone would need to come clean my house, feed my kids, feed the pets, take out the garbage, make sure my kids got to school, remind me that nights are for sleeping, never mind taking care of me or my husband. So, instead of hiring someone else to do everything else I (somewhat) do... I'll keep on living my glamorous life of home keeping and start dreaming about the next party...

Speaking of my husband, he's bringing cake pops to work with him today, I love when he thinks I do something cool!

So, I'm dreaming of tea parties... and I'm pretty sure cake pops and pom poms will be included...

Cake Pops!

I got to make cake pops! Yay! This made me so happy! I've been wanting to figure these out for a long time and I was so happy that I finally had an excuse to make them. A couple of my friends came over and helped me make them, it was a great way to spend an afternoon, cake pops and good friends, what more could I ask for?

The "excuse" to make them was for a Welcome Home Party for little Isabella who came home from Ethiopia a couple of months ago and now she lives just down the road from me. I am so blessed.

Oh my goodness, the cake pops were a huge hit at the party, the funnest part about the cake pops was watching people eat them, one bite and you usually heard some sort of moaning or exclamation of how good they were, questions of how did we make them, etc.... oh, it was the best! These are a new item to us country folk and the reviews were off the charts!

Anyways, here are a few photos taken before the party...

White cake, cake pops, waiting for the sticks to become secure.

Chocolate cake pops, almost ready for dipping. We dipped some in almond bark and some in candy melts.

And then drizzled some candy melts on top.

A "cake pop" is cake+frosting+dipping in almond bark (or candy melts) = the most amazing, cake-like-truffle you can imagine! They are that good!

Here's the start of a "cake pop stand", just styrofoam covered in wrapping paper. Click here to see the final result.


If you want proper instructions on how to make them, here are a couple of sites that explain it really well.
The Kitchn.com 
Recipe Rhapsody
Little Miss Momma Blog
Bakerella - and of course, Bakerella, she's the queen of cake pops, she has some amazingly beautiful creations!

A couple of key things that my friends and I discovered:
*a smaller size pop is easier to dip and won't fall off the stick as easy as a big pop when dipping it.
*use a small mini-scoop to make them all the same size.
*3/4 of a tub of frosting is the perfect amount for a 9x13 pan of cake, less is too dry and they fall apart.
*you can store the "dough" (cake+frosting) in the fridge for about 3 days.
* 4 inch lollipop sticks are the right size and not easy to find when you live in the sticks like we do, so pick them up at Michaels or your local candy supply store when you're in town.
* wrap your styrofoam with plastic wrap so you can take off the splattered plastic wrap and then re-use the styrofoam again.
** Paramount Crystals, click here more info.


The gazillion photos that I took at the party are still on the camera and I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, however, I'm getting anxious to "relive" the party again... after I sort through the "before party photos", that is... It was such a fun day, it was so fun to celebrate the little princess who has joined our community. Welcome home Isabella.

~Greta.